Remember Me - Movie Review

Most of the reviews I have seen for Remember Me have commented on the "twist" ending and most have said nothing good. I am going to start this review by saying I thought the twist was thematically appropriate and I did not see it coming. This confession will likely make me look like a sentimental fool and/or a moron to many people but I stand by my decision.

Remember Me is a movie that deserves more than the romantic drama advertising it is getting. The film is not a Nicholas Sparks adaptation. And if you can leave your assumptions (about a twist, about the romance, about Robert Pattinson) at the door and let this film in you may be rewarded like I was. I found the film to be a well-made musing on the impact and (potentially) arbitrary nature of loss. There are big obvious ones, small ones and emotional ones. The story begins with a young girl and her mother on a subway platform as they are robbed. In one instant it appears that it will end that way. A traumatic event but a survivable one. And then, for no reason, one of the assailants shots the mother. And as the subway rushes away the little girl is left alone on the platform with her dead mother.

It is a story of moments that are lined up like dominoes waiting for the next push that will topple them. Move forward 10 years and the film introduces us to Tyler (Pattinson) who is late to meet his family at a gravesite. Slowly his story is told and within it, a series of choices are made that are minimal in themselves but link his life to that of the young girl - now grown - and her cop father. Tyler's family has its own tragedy clouding their lives and so the romantic relationship becomes a mirror to watch how the losses in life shape what we give in life.

It is an honest portrayal of how youth flounder, sulk, fight and survive in a world that keeps giving them kicks to the head. Pattinson has lost his guiding light and in his new dim reality he is unable to direct himself. He exists immediately and is desparate to connect to something again. Emilie de Ravin plays his opposite in a self-assured young woman who is attempting to live life on her terms lest it be wrenched away. Together they make an enjoyable romantic pairing with solid chemistry and interesting moments. The film excels in this area of the narrative tackling the notion of what happens to young people when the natural idea that you will live forever is shattered.

It is an examination of human responses to despair. Robert Pattinson is lost and frustrated and easily provoked to anger. Emilie de Ravin is accepting and playing offense as her best defense. Chris Cooper, as de Ravin's father, is untrusting and suffocating while Pierce Brosnan, as Pattinson's father, is cavalier and closed off. And Ruby Jerins (as Tyler's younger sister being tormented by classmates) is insular and timid. All of the performances are exceptional and each actor brings you into the reactive experience of their character.

Overall, it is a tale of the aftermath of trauma and the need for redemption and as such becomes a portrait of life in a way we seldom think we are living. All of these concepts collide in an intimately told story that sometines feels it is not going anywhere. But that is the point. Because when the end does come you can feel the whoosh of the dominoes falling, the last ticking of the moments and the ultimate realization that everything is connected and you can never really know what will happen.